Third rail

I'm swamped. I'm trying to finish my thesis in a timely manner, and make preparations to move overseas two weeks after my defense. No time for blogging. It'll be that way for a while; 2 months or so.

But I still find minutes here and there to read, and I thought this post One Drop was right on (via kos):

Don't let all of the blathering about which candidates are "elitist" or "out of touch" distract you from the real significance of "Bittergate." The issue isn't really that Obama talked about people who "cling" to guns or religion. The issue is that he got too close to the real Third Rail of politics

Social Security is not the Third Rail, no matter what the media tells you. No, the Third Rail is economic class. Try talking about income disparity in America, what do you get? "You're engaging in class warfare!" The same cries of protest are sounded whenever one suggests that the Bush tax cuts were mostly aimed at the wealthy, or that doing away with the estate tax was only beneficial to something like the top 1% of Americans. No, we musn't talk about the working class or the middle class getting a raw deal economically. In other words, we musn't criticize the real elites in this country, namely the wealthy and the politically connected.

There is a powder-keg of class angst in America. Obama had it exactly right, people are bitter, they are frustrated, they are skeptical of more slogans, more promises. That anger is real. It is legitimate. And it is incredibly dangerous to the existing power structures in this country.

The ruling class has spent the last several decades perfecting the art of distraction and misdirection. Take the anger that people feel, and convince them that what they're really upset about, what they really want to fight, is something other than the ruling class itself...

Good stuff. Read the whole thing.